


Coffee Break

by Anonymous



Category: Undisclosed Fandom
Genre: Crack, Gen, Things People Do For Good Coffee, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 11:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21355603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “This isn’t coffee, this is anamericano,” Charlotte says. “If I wanted to drink dirty water then I would stick my tongue out beneath a leaky gutter.”
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4
Collections: Anonymous, Osmosis Exchange





	Coffee Break

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aquatics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquatics/gifts).

> This is a _Babylon Berlin_ story written for the Osmosis Exchange, a challenge where participants are required to write for canons they've only consumed by osmosis. I, unfortunately, have osmosed very little of this particular show, so this fic is wildly inaccurate. It was inspired by the prompt _Things People Do For Good Coffee_ and the fact that one of the characters is named Charlotte Ritter. I am truly, deeply sorry.

“What’s this?”

Gereon looks up from his case report, startled. It’s the first words that Charlotte’s spoken in hours, the two of them immersed in towers of dossiers, each one of them replete with witness statements and police reports.

“What’s what?” Gereon asks. But Charlotte isn’t asking him. She’s asking Hanna, the bureau’s secretary. Gereon had been so engrossed in his work that he hadn’t noticed her enter with their afternoon tea.

“What. Is. _This?_” Charlotte repeats, spitting out each word with obvious disgust.

Hanna shoots him a horrified look before addressing Charlotte. “It’s… coffee?”

“This isn’t coffee, this is an _americano_,” Charlotte says. “If I wanted to drink dirty water then I would stick my tongue out beneath a leaky gutter.”

Hanna looks stricken. “But Ma’am, this is all we have.”

Charlotte opens her mouth to reply but Gereon cuts in. “Charlotte, I understand that you’re new to the bureau, but this is how we serve our coffee here.”

“I don’t want this, I want a cappuccino.”

Gereon shares an uneasy look with Hanna. “Charlotte, we don’t have that here.” 

“So get it.”

“We can’t,” Gereon says.

Charlotte’s face darkens. She reaches across the table to grab Gereon by his tie then tugs him towards her until their noses are almost touching.

“I don’t think my father, the inventor of Ritter Sport, would be too pleased to hear about this. Get me my cappuccino.”

Gereon can only gape wordlessly as Charlotte releases him, pushing him backwards with surprising force. She lets out one final huff before she storms out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

An uneasy silence falls over the office. Hanna and Gereon stare at each other for a long moment.

“Sir?”

Gereon clears his throat and readjusts his tie. “See what you can do.”

**Author's Note:**

> **[1]** According to a reputable source (by which I mean, Wikipedia), the drink _americano_ wasn't introduced until the 1970s. However, it is also stated that [in his 1928 novel Ashenden: Or the British Agent, Somerset Maugham has his protagonist order and drink something called an americano in Naples during World War I, but there is not enough information to indicate whether it is the same drink.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caff%C3%A8_Americano#Origin) So it is _possible_ that this drink complies with the canon era, even if it is unlikely.  
**[2]** [Ritter Sport](https://www.ritter-sport.de/en/) is a German chocolate bar originally founded by Clara and Alfred E. Ritter in 1912. I'm not saying that fictional character Charlotte Ritter is a descendant of the real life Alfred Ritter... but I also don't know enough about _Babylon Berlin_ to definitively state otherwise.  
**[3]** The above is the extent of the research I did for this story, and it shows.


End file.
